


Boys and Beasts

by Andy_pandy



Category: teen wolf - Fandom
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-14
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-06-08 10:01:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6850192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andy_pandy/pseuds/Andy_pandy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Dishonour of the solstice</p><p>Nathan's life had been boring until he was quickly pulled back into the supernatural side of Beacon Hills. With the Dread Doctors making more appairences and chimeras growing in numbers, Nathan and the others need more help, but who will come to their aid?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

I woke up on the uncomfortable mattress I called my own and let out a loud sigh. Isaac had been gone for months and the time had seemed to slowly creep by. We kept our promise of keeping in contact, but he hadn't replied to any of my messages or phone calls in over two months and I couldn't even get in contact with Allison's dad to make sure he was okay, so I was pretty sure he'd forgotten about me and was getting on with his wonderful new life in France. My life, on the other hand, had continued to go to hell. After Isaac left I was able to continue staying with Derek, but soon enough he decided to leave for South America with his sister, so I was left to crash at Stiles' and Scott's houses until the authorities finally caught up with me and made me choose between moving back to Denver and going into foster care. Obviously, I chose foster care. So I had been living with an unstable couple who had three other kids to take care of as well as me, but it didn't matter that much, it was a place to stay that kept me in Beacon Hills, that's all that mattered.

First there was Matty, he was the youngest of all of us and had been living in foster care since he was five. I didn't think it would be okay to ask him about his past, he was only twelve and had just started to get over the trauma of it so I didn't want to make him uncomfortable. Then there was Sia, the couple's 'dream daughter'. Although I didn't understand how she was a dream, she quite obviously had been stealing money from them for a long time. But they didn't see that side of her, she was good at putting up the 'miss-goody-two-toes' act when they were around. Then there was me, the new child who'd automatically made myself distant from them and spent the majority of my time in my room. The oldest was Evan, he was the couple's only biological child, and lucky for him he was old enough to make decisions for himself. He wasn't around much and spent his time out working because he had to split his wage with his parents for 'extra financial support' and because he wanted to save up for a place for himself.

And of course, the couple. They had to be worse than anyone I'd ever met, I was even surprised that they were allowed to be foster parents. The 'father figure' was an afternoon drunk who was only seen in the early hours of the morning when he raided the kitchen for food. And the 'mother figure' was a nervous wreck who made all of us do the house work as 'life lessons' so she could watch shitty daytime TV programs. If that was the example we were to live by, then they needed to rethink their parenting skills.

After pulling myself to the bathroom to get washed and rummaging through my clothes to find something to wear I made my way downstairs and into the kitchen. For once there was bread that was in date, so I grabbed a slice and put it into the toaster just before Sia appeared in the doorway. She didn't say anything, but we never normally talked to each other unless we were fighting, so I wasn't surprised that she blanked me out and pushed past me to find something to eat. I pulled my phone from my pocket and checked the time, I would have to leave soon if I was expected to walk to school, and as it turned out my phone was now on 45%. I was pretty sure that Sia had taken my phone charger, but she wouldn't admit to it and I had nothing to prove that she'd done it, so I would just have to buy a new one when I had the money. Shooting her a glare, I grabbed my toast as it popped out of the toaster, grabbed my half destroyed backpack from the table and left to start my journey to school.

I didn't have earphones anymore, so listening to music wasn't a option, and even if it was, it would quickly waste the battery on my phone, so silence was the the only thing I was left to listen too. School used to be a release for me because I'd be getting away from that dreaded family I'd been stuck with, but it wasn't like that anymore. Since I gradually stopped talking and hanging around with Scott and 'the gang' my life suddenly became uninteresting. They did keep me informed of things that had been going on in Beacon Hills, but we never actually spent time together. I didn't know if it was my fault we stopped talking or if it was because my foster parents thought they were a bad influence on me, they'd caught me sneaking out in the middle of the night and told me that I wasn't allowed to see any of them again. I thought I could get away with seeing them in school and pretending that I had 'other friends' to hang out with, but they kept a close eye on me and even made sure that the school prevented us from seeing each other. My life seemed to be one giant heap of disappointment, but there was nothing I could do to change it.

When I finally got to the school I was completely exhausted, I should have been used to walking long distances, but we'd been off for term break and I'd spent it lying in bed so I'd gotten out of the routine of it. Crowds of pupils had already flooded the school and had started an uproar of laughter as they all talked about their adventurous and drunken time over the break. Signing, I pushed my way through them and made my way to my homeroom.

\------------

The classes had dragged in, but I was glad to be called out of class for lacrosse, which basically would be coach screaming at us and telling us that we need to turn up to every practice because it was a 'big year' for the lacrosse team. Lacrosse was the only thing that really motivated me anymore, I didn't really care about improving my grades or socialising, not as much as I cared about lacrosse. It was weird how I went from not caring about sports to being obsessed with it in a matter of months, but it was good for me, it give me a break from the dull live I was in.

Rushing down the steps and pushing open the changing room door I seen coach already standing in the middle of the room and the rest of the lacrosse team standing around him. He hustled me in and quickly continued yelling while I found a gap that I could stand in so I wasn't completely out in the open and at risk of having my flaws being picked at by coach, even though my only real flaw in lacrosse was strength. As I relaxed and retuned my ears so coach's obnoxious yelling wasn't deafening me, Scott and Stiles burst through the door and stood awkwardly staring at everyone. I snickered as they apologised and closed the door behind them, allowing coach to go on a long rant about how punctuality was the key to success.

Coach talked for what felt like hours before telling us to change into our kits so that we could do some practice shots to determine where people would be put on the team's list, apparently it needed a new updating, but we already knew who would be getting put at the top and who would be benched. I, for one, would more than likely be benched. I hadn't played a proper lacrosse match since the start of last semester and I was itching to play another one, but if I wasn't good enough to make the top then all I'd be doing for the next couple of months would be improving my skills. After getting changed and following the rest of the team outside, we started a quick lap around the field to warm up.

"Hey!" Scott said jogging up alongside me.

I looked around us before turning back to him, "You're gonna get us in trouble again Scott."

"Shhh," he waved his hand at me and smiled, "we need to talk."

"What about?"

"Something important."

"Okay," I sighed, "when?"

He smirked and started to jog away from me, "We'll grab you when we need you."

I shot him a weird stare as he jogged on ahead of me. Being pulled away from reality at the most awkward of times was a normal thing when you were friends with Scott, he normally had a simple explanation but he'd stretch it out to make things seem worse than they really were. Personally, I thought he did it on purpose just to keep us all together for a little longer.

As we got to the end of our lap we all stopped, Stiles and me both nearly lying on the ground with exhaustion. We all changed into our protective gear, grabbed our sticks and lined up on the field in front of one of the nets. Liam, the new guy who'd started school just before term break, was out in the net as the keeper. He was good as a keeper, but I thought he would have been better placed in defence, he was strong and good at standing his ground, he could easily take down one of the opposing attackers, but since he was new he would probably be on the benches for a while until he 'proved' himself.

\----------

Pulling myself through the remaining classes I made it to the end of the school day, I was extremely tired and just wanted to curl up in my bed and go back to sleep but I didn't have time for it. Not only did I have two essays due for the next day, but I would have to manage to complete them 'to standard' while listening to my foster mother and father screaming at each other. Looking around, I checked to see if there was a bus that went near my area, but just as I thought, there wasn't. I'd asked the school multiple times to change the route for at least one bus so I didn't have to walk home, but they hadn't seemed to listen to me. Walking around the car park past the crowds of people filing into the school buses I made my way to the end of the car park to be grabbed by the scruff and pulled back to the school grounds through the bushes. I tugged back and winced at the branches that slapped into my face before hearing Scott laugh and turning around to face him. Liam let go of me, apologised and went to stand beside Scott.

In shock, I looked from Liam to Scott then raised an eyebrow at him, "When did he get involved?"

Liam let out a loud dramatical sigh, "After he bit me."

Scott saw the confused expression on my face and quickly chimed in, "It's a long story. Nathan, we need your help."

I sighed and fixed the strap of my backpack back onto my shoulder, "With what?"

"We need you to spend time with Theo." He noticed me giving him an uncomfortable stare and quickly went on, "It'll take too long to explain it all now, but we need someone to keep an eye on him."

I sighed and folded my arms, "But why? And why me? Can't one of you do it?"

"We all have our own-"

"If you say tasks I'm going to kill you."

He laughed and shook his head, "He's already suspicious of us, he won't suspect anything from you."

"Is this a supernatural thing?"

"Yes."

I didn't ask anymore questions because I knew I wouldn't get the answers and agreed. Scott gave me Theo's number and I quickly put it into my phone before we parted ways and I pushed my way back through the bushes. The buses had already started to leave and the car park was nearly empty so I wasn't open to suspicion. I continued to walk in the direction of the traffic lights and made my way home.

\----------

After dinner I barricaded myself in my room and tried to focus on doing my essays. Luckily my foster mother had went out with her apparent friends so my foster dad just sat in the kitchen drinking quietly and talking to himself. It wasn't easy to concentrate on my essays as Scott kept messaging me repeatedly asking me if I'd texted Theo, which I hadn't. My phone battery was dangerously low and I knew that if I didn't charge it soon then it would be dead before the morning. So I pulled myself off my bed, tip toed down the the hallway and hesitantly knocked on Sia's door.

She opened the door and shot me a glare, "What do you want?"

"Do you have my phone charger?"

"I already told you-"

"Sia it's important." I folded my arms at her.

"Fine," She disappeared then came back and pushed my charger into my chest, "I was finished with it anyway."

She slammed the door in my face and left me to rush back to my room and quickly plug my phone into it, luckily it still worked. I was so happy to finally get it back, my phone wasn't exactly my life, but it always gave me something to do. I went into my messages and checked everything that Scott had said, which consisted of him repeatedly asking me to text Theo and to tell them everything that went on. He also told me not to say anything to Theo about them, which I wouldn't have done in the first place, I wasn't that stupid. I prepared myself for texting Theo, but I didn't exactly know what to say. We hadn't talked unless it was just fleeting conversations in the corridor or if he wanted me to give him the homework for a class he'd missed. I stared at the screen of my phone dumbly trying to conjure up something to say, but in the end, I just texted him a simple hello and waited for his reply.


	2. Don't panic

I'd talked to Theo for the majority of the night, although I did try to avoid his texts, but I felt bad knowing that Scott was counting on me so I had to keep replying to him. But, as soon as it got to the morning I was able to ignore him altogether and blame it on having slept in. It felt too personal texting him, maybe I just wasn't used to texting another guy, or maybe it was the fact that I didn't know why Scott didn't trust him and needed someone to watch him. Either way, it didn't feel right, it made me feel vulnerable and a little scared.

With my hands firmly shoved into my coat pockets and my hand locked around my phone I kept my head down and made my way through the school hallways. I was hoping to avoid Theo and the rest of them that morning, I didn't want Theo tagging me around and I didn't want Scott popping up in random corners to ask me what we'd been talking about. But I didn't succeed, as I passed a door in the hallway Theo rushed out and threw his arm over my shoulder.

"Hey, did you not get my text?" Theo grinned at me.

"Ah I don't think so," I stuttered, "I didn't really have much time this morning, was it important?"

"Well I was gonna meet up with you on the way to school."

I hesitantly joined in with his nervous laugher and apologised.

Theo let go of me and quickly turned around, "I better get back to my homeroom, I was mid-conversation, but I'll catch up with you later, yeah?"

He jogged off and left me to breathe a sigh of relief. I was glad to be out of his company, Scott had really put me off him, he didn't even have to say anything. I didn't even know what type of supernatural creature Theo was, there were so many things he could be and so many threats that he could cause but I couldn't manage to even guess which one. Either way, Scott didn't trust him, so that probably meant I shouldn't either. My pace quickened and I spun around the shoulder to be stopped by Stiles grabbing both of my shoulders.

"So?"

I stared at him for a minute before raising an eyebrow at him, "What?"

"You and Theo, how's it goin?" He let go of my shoulders and gave me a large and creepy grin.

"It's fine I guess," I laughed, "I don't really know what I'm meant to be doing though..."

Stiles ran a hand through his hair and muttered to himself before looking back at me seriously, "Ask him out."

My eyes widened and I felt a lump rise in my throat, "What?"

"Not like that - although it would be a good idea. Just be with him, like at all times. Distract him from doing anything other than spending time with you."

"No way." I stuttered.

Stiles sighed at me, "Why not?"

"I uh... I don't really want to-"

"It's important Nathan, pleeeaaassseee?" He grabbed one of my hands and started to slide to the ground in front of me, dramatically pretending to cry.

"Okay, okay! I'll do it!" I pulled Stiles up by his shoulder as he chimed a happy 'yay' and hugged me.

"You're the best!"

He patted both of my shoulders and pranced off leaving me standing alone in the corridor. I let out a loud sigh and continued to walk to my home room. I had a real bad feeling about the whole situation, Scott needed to tell me the full story as soon as possible, I hadn't a clue what kind of trouble I was stepping into and I needed to know if I'd have to prepare myself for anything serious.

\--------

"Scott!"

I pushed through the busy corridor trying to keep up with the pair in front of me. No matter how loud I called he didn't seem to turn around, although I knew he could hear me, his head twitched every time I called out to him, but he still didn't reply. When the crowd parted I dashed forward and launched myself between Scott and Stiles. They shot me weird stares as I grabbed both of their hands and pulled them around the corner so no one was around us.

"I need to know what's going on." I huffed resting my hand against the lockers.

"About what?" They said in unison.

"Theo."

Scott shook his head at me, "Nathan I don't-"

"I need too Scott. I'm already involved in this, and if I'm gonna be expected to fake a friendship with him then I need to know why. Tell me what's going on."

They looked at each other for a minute before nodding and looking back to me, "There's these things called Dread Doctors, we don't exactly know who or what they are or what they want, but they're trying to turn teenagers into supernatural creatures. We think that Theo's involved with them, and we want to check if we're right or not."

"Okay, so are you expecting me to try and squeeze my way into his little gang and find out if it's true?"

"Yes."

I sighed and rubbed my eyes, "Okay - but, is it safe? What if it's true and he tries to hand me over to get tested on by these 'Dread Doctors'?"

"We'll be there if you need us."

The principal came out of the staff room across from us before I could reply, and in fear of being dragged into a hell load of arguments we quickly walked in opposite directions, Scott and Stiles heading back to the canteen and me slipping into the bathroom for cover. I locked myself in one of the cubicles and leant against the wall, if I needed space to think I knew here would be where I'd get it. Pulling my phone out of my pocket I read through the unread texts and noticed that I had a simple 'hey' text from an unknown number. I furrowed my eyebrows as I reread the number, and after realising that I didn't recognise it I deleted the text and continued to stalk every social media site.

As time grew closer to the bell I left the cubicle and walked to the sinks to wash my hands, God knows how many germs lurked on the doors of those toilets. I put my phone in my pocket and covered my hands in soap, throughly rinsing my hands before looking up in the mirror to see Theo standing beside a cubicle behind me. I jumped and quickly spun around to face him, he laughed at me and came over beside me to wash his hands.

"You scared the shit out of me." I said shooting him a weird stare.

"Yeah, I noticed."

I grabbed a handful of paper towels from the dispenser and started to dry my hands, watching him uncomfortably from under my eyelashes.

"So," he reached past me to grab towels from the dispenser and leant on the sink in front of me, "do you normally hide in the toilets?"

"I wasn't hiding."

"Then what were you doing?"

I threw the damp towels in the bin and shoved my hands into my pockets, "I was on my phone."

"In the toilet?"

"Yeah, why?"

"No reason," he chuckled, "it's just a little weird that's all."

I took a deep breath and realised that I had an opportunity, "Do you want to hang out sometime?"

"That depends, what did you have in mind?"

"Uh maybe get a coffee or something?"

He stood up straight and took a couple of steps towards me, "I'd like that. Are you free after school?"

I swallowed a lump in my throat and faked an excited smile at him, "Yeah."

He smiled at me and we walked out of the bathrooms together before he patted my shoulder and walked down the corridor. I felt my shoulders drop and rolled my eyes as I pulled myself in the opposite direction and headed towards my physics class. I can't believe I actually agreed to this...

\--------

I sat in class awkwardly staring at Scott and Stiles and trying get their attention, but they didn't look in my direction so I eventually I had to give up and decided I would wait until the end of school to talk to them. In my physics class Theo hadn't shown up, at first I was happy about it, the seat Theo took was originally Isaac's and I was happier seeing it empty than taken by someone else, but Theo always turned up to class, at least that I knew of anyway. It was also clear by Scott's face that he was suspicious about it, and since I didn't have many classes with Theo I wouldn't know how many he was actually ditching.

But luckily it wasn't too long until the bell rang, so I got Scott's attention and told him to meet me at the lockers near our changing rooms. I didn't want to risk anyone spotting us, even though it would be weird if we were caught in a dark corner at the far end of the school, but we'd have less of a chance of running into a teacher.

"What's up?" Scott asked clinging to his backpack straps.

"Uh, I'm meant to be meeting Theo today."

"Really?! When?!" Stiles asked nearly tripping as he struggled to tuck his laces back into his shoes.

I kicked the tip of my toes against my shoes, "I'm not actually sure, he just asked me if I was free after school so probably sometime soon?"

"Try and keep in contact with us, okay? And if anything happens then-"

"Scott," I smiled putting my hand on his shoulder, "I'll be okay. It's just coffee."

Stiles tutted and waved his arm dramatically, "Yeah but he could spill his coffee on you."

I laughed at Stiles as he wrapped his arm around me and we made our way back to the front of the school. I really did miss hanging out with these guys, but the only way I could hang out with them again would be if I convinced my foster parents to lift my 'friend ban' with them, which wouldn't be hard to do, but I knew I had to try.


	3. "Finally"

I met up with Theo beside the traffic lights outside of our school and we walked awkwardly in nearly complete silence to the cafe a couple of blocks down. It was a nice place, it was more modern and was mixed in with a restaurant in the evenings, but it wasn't exactly the kind of place I'd expected to be a cafe. Surprisingly I hadn't been there before, I'd been to nearly every cafe in Beacon Hills in my 'comfort hunt' after Isaac left and I was moved into foster care, but apparently I'd missed a couple.

When we walked in Theo lightly grabbed my wrist and dragged me to a table that sat near the back, he admitted that he didn't want to sit near the windows incase he was 'spotted'. It was weird and gave me so many assumptions considering he blanked me out when I asked who he was hiding from, but I thought it was safer to stop asking and sat in silence while he ordered us drinks.

"How do you know my order...?" I asked looking up at him uncomfortably.

"Honestly?" He smiled at me, "I guessed."

"So, what do you do?" I asked struggling to get comfortable on the strangely hard seats, "I mean, we don't really talk much or anything so I don't really know what you get up to."

He laughed and rested his arms on the table, "Well I used to play lacrosse but I don't play anymore and I don't really do much besides going to school."

His phone bleeped and I found myself speaking up to gain his attention again, "Do you have a job or anything?"

"Nah, I was fired a couple of weeks ago." He stated bluntly reading over the text before putting his phone back in his pocket and smiling at me.

I felt like I should have asked him who the text was from and what it was about, but that would have been extremely invasive and make me seem a lot more than creepy. The waitress came over and sat our cups down before smiling and walking away, giving me the chance to reposition myself on the seat and latch my hands around the cup. I stared dumbly down at the dark liquid in it before looking up to see Theo taking a sip of his drink and wincing when he burnt his lip and tongue. I choked on my laughter before reaching for a napkin and handing it over to him.

"Are you okay?" I chuckled.

He nodded and quickly wiped his mouth with the napkin I'd handed him, "Jesus that was hot."

"Well, it was just made..."

He glared at me then laughed it off.

After that I seemed to relax a little more, letting my guard down to have a normal conversation with him instead of indirectly interrogating him. He was a lot more lively than I expected him to be, well, until his phone beeped. As soon as he'd pull it out of his pocket his whole aura would completely change, he seemed like a different person. But he quickly snapped back out of it and went back to laughing with me. It was scary seeing him switch like that, but I couldn't let him see it that it bothered me, if he even suspected anything then I would probably blow everything, then all my phone credit I'd wasted texting him would have been for nothing. Scott would probably get extremely annoyed with me too...

\-------

I was home by five o'clock, just before dinner, but I was still screamed at because I wasn't home straight after school. I felt like putting up a fight and stating that if it was the lovely Sia who'd walked in late then she would be easily forgiven, but I wasn't in the mood for an over exaggerated argument, so I sat myself at the table, ate my dinner then disappeared into my room. Theo hadn't texted me whatsoever, so once again I made the first move and told him that I enjoyed spending time with him. Typing the very sentence made me want to throw up in my mouth, but I had to take one for the team. I then texted Scott and told him about how Theo reacted when his phone went off, it was probably nothing, but it might mean something to them.

I considered doing homework, but I realised I didn't have the emotional energy to look at another school text book and lay face down on my bed. From Sia's room I could hear the muffled, crappy blaring music and from downstairs I could hear another famous recurring argument between my foster parents, who took the last beer. It wasn't long before I decided to get up and close my door so I could at least make things a little quieter, in the process I spotted Evan at the top of the stairs. I gave him a small smile and went to continue closing my door before he called me.

"Yeah?" I replied poking my head around the crack in the door.

"I'm going to the shop, you want anything?"

I didn't see Evan much, but when I did we got along, he was the only one I really got along with in this house, "You should totally get me chocolate."

"You know that's the only thing you ever ask for, you don't want anything new for a change?"

"How about a different type of chocolate bar?" I grinned at him.

He laughed at me and disappeared down the stairs, leaving me to close my door and take up my comfortable place back on my bed.

\-------

After an hour or two of sleep I was dragged awake by my phone buzzing repeatedly and groaned while I reached over to grab it. Scott's name showed up on the bright screen so I quickly answered and sat up in bed.

"Hello?" I croaked.

"Nathan, do you think you'll be able to get out of the house?"

"I'm not sure, they started locking the doors after the last time I tried to get out."

"What about your window?" He sighed.

I choked back a laugh and looked at it, "How would I jump down from a two story window?"

"I'll catch you."

I furrowed my eyebrows and crawled out of bed to my window, pulling across the curtain to see figures standing in the shadows, "Is that you outside?"

"Yeah." One of the figures stepped forward and waved.

"Okay, give me a minute."

I hung up and as quietly as possible got changed and pulled on a pair of shoes. Making sure my phone was securely in my back pocket I pulled my curtain across completely and unlocked my window. I was lucky that my window opened the full length instead of at the top, otherwise there was no way I was getting out besides stealing the key to the back door. Pulling open the window and positioning myself on the window ledge I looked down to see Scott standing waiting for me. It wasn't high up, but if I landed wrong I could still twist or even break something. Taking a deep breath I pulled my window back slightly and pushed myself off the window ledge. I fell pretty fast, so it wasn't long before Scott grasped me and stopped me before I hit the ground. I sighed in relief and slid down to my feet, thanking him and allowing him to drag me over to the shade. The other figures became clear as Kira, Stiles and Lydia. They all looked a mixture of exhausted and annoyed so I asked them about what was going on, but they quickly changed the subject.

"Does he know?" Stiles asked Scott while gesturing to me.

"I don't think so."

"Know what?" I asked staring at the both of them.

"It's Isaac, he's coming back."


	4. Scared but not that scared

I froze in shock, unable to move or breathe before finally stuttering out a 'what'. He was actually coming back? A spark of excitement ignited in the pit of my stomach before quickly being put out by my own self-doubt. Isaac hadn't talked to me in a very long time, I didn't even know if he'd want to see me let alone speak to me. Either way, he owed me answers, it would be the least I deserve.

"He's really coming back?" I asked quietly, more to myself than the others.  
"Yeah, Chris called me earlier while you were with Theo and told me that Isaac wanted to help us." Scott sighed looking at me, a glimmer of pity flashed across his face.  
I shook my head and looked back down at the dirt under my feet, "So, when will he be back?"  
"Well you see that's the thing," Stiles let out a nervous laugh, "he didn't tell us exactly when he'd be back."

\-------------

After spending half of my night stalking Theo's house with Kira - and mentally bitching about Isaac - I'd managed to get myself a couple of hours sleep before my alarm went for school. I wasn't 100% sure how I'd managed to get back into my room, but I'd guessed that Scott helped me with that. As I gradually started to get changed I felt the same angry burning sensation as the night before rise in my chest. I didn't know why I was so angry at Isaac, maybe it was because he was coming back and didn't bother to tell me, his boyfriend - or ex-boyfriend... Sighing I slowly rested on the edge of my bed and stared down at the floor. What was I to Isaac? I did still love him, I knew I did, and I desperately wanted to see him again. But he dropped all contact with me, no explanation and no confirmation on where our relationship lay.

I shook the thoughts from my head and pulled myself up to finish getting changed. As a group we'd decided to leave the whole Theo situation until Isaac came back, but of course, I still had to get cosy with him. It irritated me that I was stuck baby-sitting Theo until Isaac arrived, but I agreed to it, and there was no way out.

\---------

As I gradually made my way to school and through my first classes I started to realise how tired I really was, but I guess that was one of the downsides to having supernatural beings as friends. The teacher's voices would change from being audible to giving me complete silence. My head even began to slowly sink down to the desk below me only to be sharply pulled up by the sound of my new Physics teacher calling out to me. I jumped and automatically apologised, expecting to hear snickers from other classmates I looked around me to find the room completely empty.

I turned to the teacher dumbfound and wide eyed, "I didn't sleep through the whole class did I?"  
He nodded slowly and took a seat on the desk opposite me.  
I groaned and rubbed my eyes, "I am so sorry, sir. I didn't mean to fall asleep I just-"  
He lifted his hand up to silence me, "I could tell you were struggling. I thought it would be better that you slept in class than handed me lousy work."  
"Really? You thought that would be better?" I furrowed my eyebrows at him and stood, quickly packing my books into my bag before a hand gripped tight around my wrist.  
"Not so fast, tell me why you felt the need to sleep in my class."   
Gulping, I pulled my arm from him and shrugged my shoulders, "I had a rough night, it won't happen again."  
"Boy trouble?" He asked, it almost sounded like a strange purr.

Slowly turning to look at him I spotted a small smile creeping onto his face, so I excused myself, grabbed my bag and left the classroom as quickly as possible. My breathing went a little unsteady as I kept taking glances behind me before I walked head first into the shoulder of Theo Raeken. My head sunk in regret, but I would rather be in Theo's presence than that teacher's. Theo rested one of his hands on my shoulder as I slowly looked up and apologised.

"What's wrong?" He asked, his brow furrowing in concern.  
"Nothing, I'm just tired." Smiling slightly I tried to push past him but he pulled me back.  
"Nathan."  
"What?" I glared at him coldly before dropping my gaze.  
"C'mon."

Theo latched his hand around my forearm and half dragged me down to the boy's locker room. Of course it would be empty, lacrosse practice wasn't until after lunch, so I wasn't surprised he'd dragged me here. He let me go once we'd gotten inside the room and shut the door behind us. Gesturing to the benches beside us he signalled for me to sit. We awkwardly sat beside each other on the benches, Theo's eyes burning holes into the side of my head before he finally broke the silence.

"What's up?"  
I slowly looked at him and shook my head. I didn't want to get close to him, I was too scared of him tricking me or using me to get to the others. My job was keeping an eye on him, pretending to like him - no personal attachment.  
"Nathan, talk to me. You can trust me." His hand slowly reached up to touch my shoulder, it was a little... comforting?  
"Have you ever been in a long distance relationship before?" I stuttered slightly.  
He chuckled and shook his head, "No, but I'm taking it you have been?"  
"With Isaac." I nodded, "But we stopped talking a couple of months back, and now he's coming back to Beacon Hills. I just... I don't know how to feel."  
Theo shifted and stared at me thoughtfully, "Are you together?"  
Laughing I shrugged my shoulders.  
"I can pretend to be your new boyfriend," Theo teased with a smirk growing on his face, "show him that he's been missing out."  
"No thanks." I shook my head and thankfully the bell for class rang before the conversation could continue.

I stood and quickly tried to leave before Theo grabbed onto the end of my coat sleeve, asking me to wait for him. We slowly made our way to class together, although I knew his class was in the opposite direction, yet he still walked me to mine. Before he'd let me walk through the doorway he rubbed my shoulder and smiled at me.

"I'm here for you, if you ever need me."

I scanned his face and found no trace of a lie or a playful smirk, was he being sincere? Slowly smiling back, I thanked him and went on into my class.


	5. Aim to lose

It had been a long and hard day, but I'd decided that when I got home I was going to sleep the rest of the day. I was exhausted, and I didn't know exactly what it was that was draining me. School? Staying up all night? Crisis with my boyfriend returning from France? Whatever it was, it was hitting me pretty hard. That was how I found myself hiding under my bedcovers before 6 o'clock. I wasn't hungry and I sure as hell wasn't in the mood to talk, all I wanted to do was sleep. Which was working out well until my phone started buzzing and shaking the beside table. Cursing myself for not putting it on silent I reached over and answered.

"Hello?" I groaned, shuffling back under my blanket.  
"Hey, what's up?" Theo's voice sounded way too cheery for my liking.  
Rolling my eyes I muttered an 'I'm good'.  
"About Isaac coming back, am I gonna be your pretend boyfriend or not?"  
I jumped up in my bed and felt my heart beat speed up a little, "You were being serious?!"  
"Uh yeah. We should wear matching clothes, we could even show up to school together. I'll hold your hand and kiss your-"  
"Oh my god, stop. Theo, I'm not pretending to be you're boyfriend just because he's coming back."  
"You know," Theo sighed, "he could have found a girl over there, that would explain why he stopped talking to you. And people say French accents are pretty sensual... We should do it, just to piss him off."  
I felt the same anger rise up again and let out a deep sigh, "Let's do it."  
"See you in the morning, babe."  
"Bye, babe." I replied, forcing out a chuckle. 

\---------

Theo appeared prompt as ever outside my house for half seven the next morning, I was slightly confused as to how he actually knew my address as I hadn't given him it, but I honestly didn't care. With us pretty much matching, except our bags, we started the walk towards school. Theo went over nicknames we could use for each other, all of them seemed disgusting and cliche. He also went over the 'how we got together story' which was the worst idea he'd ever come up with.

"You want to tell people that we saw each other in the hallways until you finally had the courage to ask me out?" I repeated with a sigh.  
"Yep, why?" He asked shoving his hand into his pocket.  
"That's the worst thing you could have ever come up with, couldn't you just say we bumped into each other at the mall then had coffee?"  
"It's romantic." He whined.  
"It's sickening." I grinned at him.  
"Okay fine, we'll go with your idea."

We continued walking, the majority of the time in silence, unless Theo had a bright idea of something we could add to the story - how we'd sneak off together during break and lunch because we weren't ready to come out, how we'd hide ourselves on dates in case someone saw us. Although he was the one that had been hiding, not me.

\--------

Before entering the school I'd had a moment of panic, obviously people would stare but I hadn't prepared myself for it. It was then that Theo latched his hand around mine, smiled at me and dragged me into the school. Pretending that I was happily in love with Theo was more exhausting than I thought. I could tell he was fully prepared for anything; he was up-beat, happy and had a smile plastered to his face. He was obviously enjoying himself, maybe a little too much.  
Passing Scott and the others while having Theo latched to my arm was a little nerve wrecking. Their faces showed a mixture of shock and anger, except Scott's. He nodded at me with a small smile, he must have known that I was pretending to go out with Theo, but he would assume it was for different reasons. I dropped my head and kept myself walking, by the time I lifted my head again we'd stopped. A dark haired boy stood in front of us with smile before giving a confused stare to Theo.  
I pulled myself back and looked from the boy to Theo. Theo's whole expression had changed, his eyes had narrowed, his smile had completely faded and he'd brought his arms up to fold them against his chest. They quite obviously knew each other. I cleared my throat and saw Theo's head twitch slightly so that he was looking at me out of the corner of his eye.

"Is he... one of us?" The other boy whispered gesturing to me.  
Theo growled slightly, "Nathan this is Corey."  
I slowly looked at the boy and smiled, "Hey."  
"So what can you do?" He asked smiling and advancing a little closer towards me.  
Theo quickly put his hand on Corey's chest and stood in front of him, causing him to step back, "Not now."

Corey shot me a sad smile before moving to the other side of the hallway and continuing on his journey. Seeing him leave like that was weird, and left me glaring at Theo who refused to give me a proper explanation.

"I have to practice, so I'll see you later."  
"Practice for what? Because you sure as hell don't do lacrosse." I asked raising an eyebrow at him.  
"I'm going swimming."

He turned and left me watching him walk away completely confused. If he wasn't going to explain it, then Corey could.


	6. Tongue Tied

As soon as Theo disappeared out of my sight I bolted down the hallway in the direction that Corey had went. Standing on my toes I tried to look over the mounds of people until I finally spotted him over by his locker and rushed over. I stood beside him and took a deep breath before smiling at him.

"Hi." He smiled back at me before continuing to stack books in his locker.  
"That's uh.. that's a lot of books." I said in awe staring at the growing pile.  
"It's not all from my classes, I like to read sometimes so I collect a couple of books here and there."  
I raised an eyebrow at him, "A couple?"  
"Yeah..." He looked over the pile before shutting his locker and leaning on it to face me, "So you're the new guy."  
"Uh yeah," I nodded slightly going a long with it, "what exactly do we do?"  
Corey shot me a strange look before sighing, "Well we normally wait until Theo tells us what we have to do, in the meantime we're normal students."  
Nodding, I quickly took a look around to make sure Theo hadn't miraculously appeared before leaning a little closer to Corey, "What did you mean when you asked me what I could do?"  
"Well you're a chimera aren't you?" Corey stared at me patiently before realising I wasn't going to answer, "We all have our own perks, I can go invisible - which is pretty cool if I really need it!"  
I smiled and nodded in agreement, "Are there others?"  
"There's Tracy, Josh and Hayden. But you probably won't see them much, Hayden you might see in school but the others you won't see unless Theo needs us."

Just as I'd muttered an 'okay' the bell rang, and Corey quickly excused himself for class, explaining that he was excited about the next topic. He was a nice guy and I was pretty sure he'd make a great friend, but I'd have to wait until he's not following Theo like a puppy. That way I'd know I could trust him.

\---------

I'd decided to ditch my class and start looking for Theo, it probably wasn't the best idea but I wanted to know if he'd give me a different story from Corey. After finding the school's pool, gym and track fields empty I made my way to the boys locker room. If he'd told me the truth then he should be in there getting changed.  
Before opening the door I hesitated, I wasn't scared of Theo, but if he was going around making a gang of chimeras I didn't want to be dragged into it. Sighing, I pushed open the door and made my way inside. There was some small steam clouds remaining, letting me know that someone had been in here - and had more than likely used the shower. I called out to Theo but got no reply, so I slowly made my way into the middle of the locker room to look for him before a voice boomed from behind me.  
I spun around to see Theo standing shirtless in front of me. He'd already started to get changed and had managed to put on his boxers and trousers before I'd made my way to him, but they'd been left unbuttoned. He was more built than I thought he was, so he'd either been working out or the supernatural had caused some serious steroid problem. Either way, he looked good - no - I mentally shook myself and looked up to see Theo smiling at me.

"Like what you see?" He asked as he started to button up his trousers.  
"Really? Of all of the things you could say?" I let a small smirk creep onto my face and folded my arms, "Who's Corey?"  
"You jealous?"  
"No I'm not jealous. I just wanna know who he is. Relative? Friend? Little brother?"  
"In a way he's a friend, yeah." 

Theo slowly advanced towards me, causing me to take a couple of steps back. I'd expected him to stop walking but he smiled and continued until he'd finally had me uncomfortably pressed up against one of the lockers. He rested his arm beside my head and planted his hand on the locker beside my waist. I felt my heart beat start to rise and my breathing hitch as he leant closer and stopped inches from my face.

"Can I ask you a question now?" His voice was low, not low enough to be a whisper, but enough to cover my arms in goosebumps.  
I tried to utter the words, but I couldn't manage it. So instead I slowly nodded.   
"Can I kiss you?"

I tried to sink back against the locker behind me, but I couldn't get any further away from him. I opened my mouth to speak but before I had the chance Theo had leaned down and pressed his lips against mine. Taken completely by surprise, I froze. I reached up to his chest wanting to push him away, but I couldn't. Instead, I kissed him back. His hands moved, one placing itself on my hip and the other snaking it's way around my neck. This was a weird sensation, I hadn't been kissed in so long. I knew it was wrong and I wanted him to stop, but at the same time I didn't. My hands took on a mind of their own and slid up his chest to rest around his neck and pull him closer. I felt him smile slightly against my lips as he pulled away, resting his forehead on mine to look at me.

"Looks fun."

My head shot to the side to see Isaac sanding in the doorway to the boys locker room, arms folded and an extremely annoyed smile on his face. My mouth dropped as I pushed Theo away from me and stared dumbly at Isaac. I stuttered, trying to explain that it wasn't what it looked like but Isaac shot me a glare that quickly silenced me. Clenching my jaw I felt my eyes start to water and watched Isaac as he slowly made his way into the locker room.


End file.
